zled with its light, nor tormented with the too great heat of its beams. By night, when the clouds thickened, and streamed down in little rivers, our covering was only made the more smooth by it; and none of its moisture ever penetrated into our houses or granaries. Our people always went out cheerfully to work; and if they found the heats too violent, or saw a shower drawing together in the clouds, had each his grotto to retire to under this red piece of rock, that extended itself over all our habitations. There was not then any people so happy as we were; and now, alas! there is scarcely so miserable a people on the face of the whole earth, as we are become at one blow. On the first day of the last full moon, on a sudden I thought I saw all that part of the red rock which was over my apartment, trembling, and in agitation; when, in an instant, other parts of it appeared over my head, and then others, till at last it left my apartments, and the whole city quite exposed to the air. All this was done almost in an instant in much less time than I have been writing. The king, my father, was then in council with the chiefs of the : city, and found himself exposed all at once to the glaring light of the day, as well as the rest of us. "Tis impossible as yet to tell all the damage that has been done. The walls of the grand house for the infants, are tumbled in; and great numbers of the little innocents perished under the rubbish. The eggary has fared yet worse. Our storehouses, and great part of the grain in them are destroyed. In one word, almost all our houses, and the palace itself, is nothing but one heap of ruins. The heavy rains which fell that afternoon, and all the next night, have completed our misfortunes; and we have scarcely enough left alive to bury the dead. It is thought by most, that the occasion of this great calamity to our nation, was an earthquake; for it must, they say, have required some general disorder in Nature, to move so vast, and so extended a rock, as that was over us. Others say, it was one of those prodigious monsters, which Providence (out of its goodness to us) allows but two legs to walk upon, that they may not crush yet more regiments of our people to death than they do. The guards who were on duty when this accident happened, were all destroyed, except one; who is very much wounded, and now lies dangerously ill. He has a violent delirious fever; but says at intervals, that just before this happened, one of these monsters, actually drew towards the city; and that he saw him suddenly raise up one of those vast columns which support him, and drive away the rock before him with the end of it. How true this account may be, Heaven only knows; but surely it is not unlike the character of those pests of the whole animal world, who were certainly created by the evil principle; and who seem to be the only creatures on the face of the earth, who delight in doing mischief to others, without any view of doing good to themselves. we are. Whatever was the cause of our sufferings, never was there a people more distressed than Come therefore as soon as you pos sibly can, to comfort your afflicted friend, who could scarcely write thus much for tears, and who yet has not told you the half of our misfortunes. Their Sagacity and Habits. THESE Insects are very numerous, and differ considerably in their habits. Some are found in extensive communities, constructing, with the utmost art, cells for their young, and repositories for their food; while others both dwell and work in solitude. The whole tribe live on the nectar of flowers and on ripe fruit. We shall, however, more G particularly confine ourselves to the description of the Hive Bee, as related by the Rev. Mr. Bingley. In the formation of their combs, the present insect seems to resolve a problem which would not be a little puzzling to some geometricians, namely, "A quantity of wax being given to make of it equal and similar cells of a determined capacity, but of the largest size in proportion to the quantity of matter employed, and disposed in such a manner as to occupy in the hive the least possible space." Every part of this problem is completely executed by the Bees. By applying hexagonal cells to each others' sides, no void spaces are left between them; and though the same end might be accomplished by other figures, yet such would necessarily require a greater quantity of wax. Besides hexagonal cells are better fitted to receive the cylindrical bodies of these insects. A comb consists of two strata of cells applied to each other's ends. This arrangement both saves room in the hive, and gives a double entry into the cells of which the comb is composed. As a further saving of wax, and for prevent |